History Literature / TheHandmaidsTale

Made into a 1990 film, written by Creator/HaroldPinter and starring the late Creator/NatashaRichardson, Robert Duvall, Creator/FayeDunaway and Aidan Quinn; and a 2017 Creator/{{Hulu}} [[Series/TheHandmaidsTale TV series]] starring Creator/ElisabethMoss, Samira Wiley, Creator/JosephFiennes and Creator/YvonneStrahovski.

* BuryYourGays: Or rather, "leave your gays hanging on the gibbet as a warning to others." "Gender treachery" in Gilead is punishable by death, along with many other "crimes". It's somewhat [[ZigZaggingTrope zigzagged]] in on-page depictions though: Moria, the only LGBT+ character with a name, face and dialogue (she's a lesbian) survives the book, though in a [[SexSlave bad state]], and she knows once they deem her "useless" she'll get [[FateWorseThanDeath shipped off to the Colonies]] for a slow death. This also goes for other bi or lesbian women in the Jezebels brothel like her.

** Serena Joy spent most of her pre-Gilead career as a televangelist promoting "traditional family values" (i.e. women should StayInTheKitchen and aspire to be [[BabyFactory Baby-Factories]], etc). But now that everything she preached for has been instituted by the Republic of Gilead, [[VictoryIsBoring she is not so pleased with the new situation,]] or with having to share her husband and engage in the humiliating ceremony where he has sex with his Handmaid while essentially lying on top of her. Offred alludes to this while musing about Serena during a monologue:

* GaiasLament: The environment is in a state of decline, which spurred the events that lead to the formation of Gilead. Severe air and water pollution, ozone degradation, radiation from nuclear meltdowns along the San Andreas after an earthquake and any number of chemicals and medicines people used; all of it contaminated peoples' bodies to the point that vultures could die just from eating them. All of this lead to a severe decline in birth rates. The emergence of a resistant form of syphilis and AIDS certainly didn't help matters. Whales and most fish are also mentioned to be long extinct.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_4147.jpeg]]

The setting is the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Republic of Gilead]], a newly-established theocracy still fighting rebellion at its borders in the former United States. Money has been abolished; laws are based on the state's interpretation of Christianity, and many crimes are punishable by public execution. Everyone has a specific role to play -- especially women.

Global fertility rates have plunged well below replacement levels. Pregnancy is rare, and one in four of those children will be born with severe birth defects. In Gilead, fertile women are rationed like everything else. Handmaids are given to the Commanders and other high-status men of the nation, to bear children for them and their Wives.

* CrapsackWorld: The life just sucks for everyone in Gilead, and it's implied it's not that much better elsewhere in the world. (In the book, Canada is not a safe country because refugees are often sent back.) There is a huge problem with the destroyed environment and mass pollution, and especially infertility, sterility and extremely high rate of miscarriages and birth defects. People constantly fear they will be reported and executed for the slightest offence, also retroactively. For example, doctors who performed abortions were considered murderers and hanged. Gay and other queer people are gender traitors who are either executed or sent to the Colonies (concentration camps). Remarried divorcees' second marriages were declared unlawful. There is no religious freedom or any other freedom. People are assigned husbands and wives by the state. Informants are sometimes pardoned, but more often they are not. People are scared and can't trust anybody. Women can't read or write. People are forced to participate in public executions (called salvagings and particicutions). Clothes and books that are no longer allowed got burned. There is oppression everywhere in every aspect of life. "Better never means better for everyone. It always means worse, for some," according to Offred's Commander. We hardly see anyone whose life is fine or moderately okay. Even the Commander and his Wife are miserable and dissatisfied. And as with other tyrannies and totalitarian regimes, there are purges and executions among the ruling class eventually.

** Offred's ([[spoiler:Kate]] in the movie) husband is shot to death by the soldiers while the family stops during their escape from Gilead. This is in contrast to the novel where there is still a 50% chance of him being alive.

* FantasticUnderclass: Gilead is already the TropeCodifier for a NoWomansLand, with women being completely stripped of their civil rights, but Handmaids are the lowest of the low, being "unacceptable" but fertile women who are thus forced into being [[BabyFactory natal slaves]] for the Commanders and their Wives. They are stripped of their own names, instead given a patronymic of "Of-[Commander's name]", are ceremonially raped every month, forbidden to socialize, watched at almost all times, and their survival depends on whether they can rear a healthy baby for their owners—if not, they can be tortured or killed. They're also subject to constant Slut-Shaming. Even Jezebels (who are more standard Sex Slaves at brothels for the higher-level men) and Unwomen (who are sent to clean up nuclear waste) have more autonomy, and at least one character expresses that she'd rather be an Unwoman than a Handmaid, despite Handmaids being technically a step up.
* FemaleMisogynist: Serena Joy made a living as an advocate before Gilead took over, claiming that women should refrain from taking up careers and fighting for equal rights and instead seek a life of blissful peace in servitude to their husbands. Of course, now that she has (or rather, has been forced into) everything she preached about, she's pissed.

* GenreShift: The emotionally-laden story of Offred is immediately followed by the transcript of a speech given at a future study symposium that clinically dissects the story, dismissing a lot of it as too vague and unreliable as a primary historical source.
* GirlOnGirlIsHot: {{Discussed|Trope}}. Moira refers to Jezebel's as "butch paradise", and the women can have sex, if they want.

** The regime finds Biblical precedent for this in the stories of figures like Jacob or Abraham who impregnated their wives' handmaids when they couldn't have children.

** Gilead itself is causing this with its own attempts to increase the birth rate. There is very strong (real-world) evidence that being relaxed and comfortable while having sex increases the chances of conception. The "ritual" of husbands having sex with handmaids has deliberately been made as impersonal and uncomfortable as possible for the woman, to the point that any attempt to make it more comfortable or intimate has been made illegal, all of which further reduces the already low number of conceptions.

* IKEAErotica: [[JustifiedTrope Intentionally invoked]] [[FanDisservice to show how passionless, loveless, and chore-like sex has become in Gilead.]]

* IllegalReligion: Everything except the regime's particular fundamentalism is banned. Being a Catholic priest is a capital crime, and it's mentioned that the Church ordered clergy to stop wearing the cassock because of this. Quakers are also mentioned as being persecuted, along with Baptists (who have rebelled). Jews are allowed to convert or leave for Israel. Those who stay but practice Judaism in secret are executed.

* LaResistance: There are at least two known organizations who fight against the Republic's regime. Who's part of it, however, is hard to say. One is called Mayday which is a secret group who works to bring Gilead down from the inside. The second one is called the Underground Femaleroad, which is a resistance and rescue organization that helps the persecuted escape.

* NoNameGiven: Our protagonist and all other handmaids, but if you really read between the lines her first name is probably June, implied by a line in the first chapter: "We learned to lipread, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way, we exchanged names, from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June". Everyone in the list appears later in the story, except June. And then we consider that June (the month) is named after Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage and childbirth... Although, it's revealed in the first chapter that she has apparently changed the names of the others (Moira, Fred, Nick etc.) to protect her friends remaining in Gilead, so potentially the ''whole'' list of names given is made up. Though it could also be an author EasterEgg as the theme of summer is strong in the text. Atwood [[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/books/review/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-age-of-trump.html has said]] that it was not her intention [[spoiler:to imply that Offred's real name is June]] "but it fits so readers are welcome to it if they wish." The narrator gets explicitly NamedByTheAdaptation: in the 1990 film adaptation, where Offred's name is [[spoiler:Kate]] and the 2017 TV show adaptation, where it's [[spoiler:June]].

* NoWomansLand: Probably the TropeCodifier for the modern Western audience. Even women who are seen as socially acceptable have no rights, and no say over what happens to them -- the narrator mentions one does not see any older women at all. Econowives have it hard and must take care of themselves and their families, should they be lucky to have some. Marthas are forced to serve for food and board only. Unwomen are sent to Colonies to clean toxic waste and die a slow, horrifying death; only the luckier ones get sent to work in agriculture. The prostitutes have at least ''some'' autonomy, but death is their only way out. Handmaids are monitored extremely closely and are basically sex slaves that must procreate in 6 years, or else they are declared Unwomen. Aunts have some power and privileges, but only over other Handmaids, and they have to ''torture'' and brainwash their charges. Even the Wives and Daughters, members of the elite, are severely dissatisfied with their lack of agency and the paradise their husbands and fathers created.
* OneWordTitle: Nearly every section title fits this ("Household," "Shopping," etc.) With one exception, every other section is titled "Night."

* LieBackAndThinkOfEngland: Offred recalls the phrase "close your eyes and think of England" during the ceremony, and (mistakenly) attributes it to Queen Victoria.

* TriangRelations: Practically mandatory in Gilead, at least if the man can afford it, but it had better be the correct triangle.